Foreword

Carolyn Rabiner, L.Ac, Dipl. C.H.

With intelligence and penetrating insight, Lori Ann King has given women who are facing, or have already had a hysterectomy and/or oophorectomy, the gift of a much-needed guide to help with the fear and confusion that often accompany this experience. She accomplishes this with candor and humor, freely sharing her own personal experiences and feelings on numerous topics that are common to having these procedures, including many that women are hesitant to discuss with their friends or even their doctors. Lori’s experience as a health and fitness coach really helps here. The reader will find numerous resources for finding her way back to wholeness.

Lori introduces readers to important new ways of thinking about the experience of hysterectomy and surgical menopause. She deeply explores the plethora of feelings associated with this, from beliefs a woman has held before discovering that she has a problem, and the shock of first learning about what is happening, all the way through the post-surgical phase and recovery Lori provides powerful tools, along with numerous suggestions for further learning, that will help readers to heal more quickly, and indeed, improve their lives in many positive ways.

Lori has a keen understanding of the mind-body component involved in the healing journey. With a clear and engaging style, she includes fascinating new research findings on this emerging science. Her many tips and ideas for how to deeply connect with this aspect of one’s being will inspire readers to explore facets of themselves that can kindle healing and transformation. For the reader who is willing to be “captain of her own ship,” the implications here are nothing less than profound. Arrival at a state as challenging as surgical menopause can be, can also be understood as an urgent call to dig deeply into one’s being—to learn to trust one’s own instincts. In this way, one can experience life-changing breakthroughs. For example, when Lori wasn’t happy with her medication, and had reached a state of exasperation, she found an alternate route to complaining to her doctor. By applying the techniques she outlines in her book, her condition greatly improved, and subsequently she was able to find balance with a lower dose of bioidentical hormones.

This is only one of many triumphs that are detailed in these pages. Lori came back strong, and so can you!